US health authorities said they plan to temporarily bar permanent residents of the country from reentering if they’ve traveled recently to -affected areas in a new rule published Friday.
The move escalates the Trump administration’s reliance on travel restrictions in response to the fast-spreading outbreak in central Africa linked to hundreds of cases and 177 suspected deaths.
The revision to quarantine rules lets the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention block lawful permanent residents, commonly known as green-card holders, from entering if they’ve traveled to countries where the virus is spreading.
That would intensify the restrictions announced earlier this week barring travel to the US for people who had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the prior 21 days. That order didn’t apply to US citizens, nationals or lawful permanent residents.
What CDC said
The CDC said in a statement that the rule won’t permanently bar affected but provides the agency the authority to restrict entry when necessary. The rule said the decision stems from resource constraints and the fact that green-card holders are more likely to have ties to people who live outside the US, making their inability to return to US soil less burdensome.
The Department of Human and Health Services and the CDC “have determined that the best balance between ensuring the Director of CDC has the ability to properly allocate resources and taking into account the interests of persons entering the United States is to draw the line at lawful permanent residents,” the rule said.
The interim final rule published late Friday is effective immediately and will remain in effect for six months or until Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. determines it is no longer needed.
Existing measures “have not completely stopped (and will not completely stop) global travelers, and other persons crossing from one country into another country, from spreading disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus across country boundaries,” the interim rule said. The broader authority “is therefore critical to slowing the introduction of Ebola disease into the United States.”
The Trump administration has emphasized travel restrictions and enhanced screening in its response to the Ebola outbreak. Those measures have drawn some criticism from health authorities in the region who have urged the international community to boost efforts to contain the outbreak. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention decried the travel restrictions, saying they’re often unnecessary and ineffective.
The order also followed a Trump administration rule change requiring that permanent residents in the US will now have to leave the country to apply for green cards.
